Use of a Technology-based System to Motivate Aged Persons in Performing Physical Activity: A Feasibility Study

Els Knippenberg (  els.knippenberg@pxl.be ) Centre of Expertise – Innovation in Care, Department of Healthcare, PXL University College of Applied Sciences and Arts, Guffenslaan 39, 3500 Hasselt, Belgium. 2Reval Rehabilitation Research Center, Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, Hasselt University, Agoralaan Building A, Hasselt University, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9676-8633 Annick Timmermans Universiteit Hasselt Steven Palmaers Hogeschool PXL Annemie Spooren Hogeschool PXL


Background
People worldwide live longer. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the proportion of the world's population over 60 years of age will nearly double from 12-22% between 2015 and 2050 (1). The European Commission expects that the old-age dependency ratio (i.e. people aged 65 + relative to aged  in the European Union will increase from 29% in 2016 to 51% in 2070 (2). When the years over 60-65 can be lived in good health and in a supportive environment, the ability of aged persons to perform their individual meaningful activities adequately will be little different than that of a younger person (1).
Although aging is inevitably related to physical and psychosocial change, this change does not de ne whether an individual is aging successfully (3). Successful aging is complex, as it involves not only an individual's perception, but also professional evaluations (i.e. identify and evaluate different needs in unique individuals to identify the most appropriate intervention) (3). According to Rowe and Kahn (1997), successful aging is determined by avoiding disease and disability, maintaining high cognitive and physical functioning, and staying involved with life and living (3,4).
One of the contributing factors of 'maintaining physical functioning' is maintaining activity and physical capacity (3,5,6). Physical capacity includes "alleviating impairment and functional limitation", and "preventing injury, impairment, functional limitation, and disability" (3). Activity can be described as occupational performance, and refers to "the ability to choose, organize, and satisfactorily perform meaningful occupations that are culturally de ned and age appropriate for looking after one's self, enjoying life, and contributing to the social and economic fabric of a community" (7).
It is not only important to maintain activity and physical capacity when aging (5,8), but it is also suggested that initiating regular moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, even when older, can improve health and longevity (5,6). However, when aging, people tend to change their behaviour and become more sedentary. According to Fanning et al. (2016), rapid declines in physical function are substantially impacting the overall quality of life of aged persons, and also reduce the ability to life independently (5). Therefore, it is important to stimulate older persons to perform physical activities. According to the WHO, healthy persons of 65 years and above should perform at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity or at least 75 minutes of vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity all throughout the week (9). Although many research is done in older adults with physical exercise programs, with positive results, the most optimal exercise program remains unclear; More detailed research, and speci cally in the home environment, is needed (10,11). As it is clear that older adults need to perform physical exercises or activities to improve health and longevity, it is also important to stimulate or motivate the person to perform the exercises and activities. To stimulate physical activity (PA) in aged persons, centre-based (8) and DVD-based programs (5,8) at home have been tried and found successful. Especially centre-based PA interventions (8) such as group tness, group dance, physical games, group gymnastics, etc. However, even if these centre-based PA interventions have effectively improved physical function, they are often costly (e.g. staff costs) and limited in reach (i.e. the amount of persons one can reach) (8,12).
Most aged persons wish to live in their home until they die, i.e. aging in place. To be able to this, aged persons need to be able to perform activities of daily life (ADLs). And therefore, they need to maintain strength, balance, and endurance (13). Not only is it better for the aged persons to age in place as safely, independently, and comfortably as possible, it may also provide signi cant nancial advantages regarding health-care expenditures (14).
To stimulate and increase PA in aged persons at home, but with a low-cost intervention, technology-based systems are promising tools. Fanning et al. (2016) introduced a DVD, which is a good tool for large-scale intervention delivery, as it is inexpensive, widely known and relatively simple to install and operate. Fanning et al. (2016) suggested that a six month DVD-delivered PA program, was effective for enhancing physical function and quality of life in aged persons (5). Roberts et al. (2017) showed that these positive effects were not maintained at 18 months post-intervention. Although the results of this study were positive, it is shown that there is still a need for PA programs that allow continued participation, especially after the o cial intervention and the therapist support has ended (8).
Technologies, such as Nintendo Wii, Wii Balance Board or Kinect, are also very popular to stimulate aged persons in initiating or maintaining PA (15,16). Not only because this technology is also considered lowcost (16,17), it is also relatively simple to install and operate. Furthermore, although Nintendo Wii or other exergames with computers and/or virtual reality might not always contribute to better outcomes in PA or physical performance (15,18), it is clear that using exergames provides a positive motivational aspect for PA (15,17).
To the author's knowledge, when using Nintendo Wii, Wii Balance Board or Kinect, mostly standard games are used, such as bowling, yoga, ski jump, etc. Only one study was found in which a customised videogame was developed using the Kinect-system (19). Whether the use of technology motivates aged persons more than other tools to perform physical exercise or activities, is not known to the authors. But motivation itself is an important part in every patient population, hence the importance of motivation in several occupational therapy models and assessments (e.g. Person-Environment-Occupation model, Assessment of Motor and Process Skills, Canadian Occupational Performance Measure) (7,20). By using these occupational therapy models like the Person-Environment-Occupation (PEO-)model or the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM), therapists can involve the patient more in the process of setting unique and individual goals (7,20), which increases motivation. This nding is mostly addressed in rehabilitation (21)(22)(23)(24), but Vanroy et al (2019) demonstrated that for aged persons to be motivated to exercise, their needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness towards the exercises, need to be satis ed (25). To ful l these needs, the use of the aforementioned occupational therapy models and consequently use a client-centred approach, it is assumed by the authors that aged persons can be motivated by a technology-based system which incorporates the full client-centred approach to perform PA.
In other physical elds, such as rehabilitation, technology-based system are more common in use and have proven to be effective to motivate persons with disabilities to perform PA. The researchers of this study, developed a technology-based system for use in neurorehabilitation, called the intelligent Activitybased Client-centred Training (i-ACT) system (26). While it is still a prototype and tested for its effect in functional performance, it showed good results towards usefulness and motivating people in neurorehabilitation to perform PA, especially because it uses the client-centred approach (27). As stated above, a client-centred approach is important in every patient population but mostly addressed in rehabilitation (21,22,(26)(27)(28)(29). Due to these positive results in neurorehabilitation, the researchers would like to gain insights in the use and motivational aspects of the i-ACT in other populations, such as aged persons, where physical activity and occupational performance is important.
To explore whether this prototype could also be useful and motivating aging persons in performing PA, the aim of this current study was to assess to which extent a customised Kinect system is 1) a credible tool to increase PA in elderly, 2) motivating to perform PA by elderly, and 3) easy to be used by elderly.

Participants and protocol
A mixed-method cross-sectional feasibility study was performed in ve aged care institutes, each was given a period of six weeks, in Flanders, Belgium (Begralim WZC Eyckendael (Tongeren and Riemst), DVC Hogevijf Hasselt, WZC and DVC H. Catharina Zonhoven). The study was approved by the medical ethical committee of Leuven (reference B322201731417). A convenience sample of 48 aged participants was recruited among elderly in the different elderly care centres. Local occupational therapists and other healthcare professionals, such as physiotherapists and patient care assistants, who work with elderly, enrolled eligible persons in the present study.
Subjects had to ful l the following inclusion criteria: being a client of one of the participating centres, 65 years of age or older, cognitively able to understand and respond to questions, and follow up instructions, understand and speak the Dutch language. Exclusion criteria were: severe spasticity that unables participants to perform exercises, severe visual impairment (e.g. blindness, cataract, etc.), severe communication disorder that unables participants to understand and follow up instructions (e.g. aphasia, agnosia, etc.), persons who use electric wheelchairs who are not able to make a transfer towards a chair.
All aged participants were informed about the study by the head researcher and were included after they gave written informed consent.
Participants received a 20-30 minutes test with i-ACT prototype, under supervision of an occupational therapy student and local therapist, concerning different exercises. Exercises consisted of upper limb movements (e.g. reach sideways, upwards, etc.) and/or lower limbs movements (lift right knee, sidestep, light squat, etc.). All exercises were individually determined in relation to the physical abilities of the participants.
After the test, 3 questionnaires were administered by a researcher or occupational student to evaluate the experience of the elderly participants with the i-ACT system. The 3 questionnaires were: the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) (30)(31)(32)(33), the System Usability Scale (SUS) (34), and the Credibility and Expectancy Questionnaire (CEQ) (35,36). The IMI was selected to evaluate the motivation to use the i-ACT. It assesses the participant's subjective experience related to a target activity, in this case the i-ACT exercises. The IMI consists of 6 subscales: interest/enjoyment, perceived competence, effort, felt pressure/tension, value/usefulness. A total IMI-score is not recommended, therefore subscale scores are used in the analyses (30)(31)(32)(33). The SUS was selected to evaluate the usability of i-ACT within aged persons. The item scores on the SUS range from 1 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree) and are converted into a score from 0 (negative) to 100 (positive) A score of 72.5 or higher is considered good and above 85.0 is excellent (34). The CEQ was selected to evaluate the credibility and expectancy with regard to the i-ACT for improvement of PA. The questionnaire consists of 2 subscales, i.e. credibility and expectancy, and scores range from 1 (totally not) to 9 (totally yes) and percentages (0-100%). The percentages are converted to scores on a scale of 1 to 9. The maximum score on each subscale is 27. A score of 13.5 is considered neutral, everything above 13.5 is positive while everything under 13.5 is considered negative (35,36).
During the actual use of the i-ACT for PA exercises, the thinking aloud method (37) was used. This method involves concurrent verbalisation of a person's thought while performing a task. Therefore, all the thoughts and other feedback that the participants verbalised during the experience with i-ACT were noted. The statements and feedback of 12 supervisors (i.e. students and therapists) were also collected using the thinking aloud method during and after the test with i-ACT and noted.

Apparatus
The i-ACT prototype was used in this study as a technological system that stimulates physical activity. It is a motion detection system based on a Microsoft Kinect camera and sensors that detect a human shape and human movements. The most important feature of i-ACT is that it is a technology-based system where client-centredness is fully involved in every step. Clinicians record one or more movements which are valuable for the participant, and sets up the necessary parameters to progress towards an exercise (e.g. amount of repetitions, target placement, etc) which is unique for this speci c participant (26). The patient thereby steers the avatar movement in a virtual environment and gets real time feedback on successful trajectories, stabilisation of body areas during movement (as seen in Fig. 1). After the exercise is nished, feedback is provided on the quality of the patient's movements.
The details of the software that was used by the i-ACT system are described elsewhere (26).

Data analyses
Descriptive analysis of the questionnaire results were executed with IBM SPSS Statistics (version 22.0; Armonk, New York).
Qualitative data from the semi-structured interviews in aged participants and the noted statements and feedback gathered using the thinking aloud method in the aged participants and supervisors, were analysed using thematical analyses (38).

Results
In total, 48 aged persons, of which 20 males and 28 females, with a mean age of 81.19 (SD = 8.10), and 12 supervisors (2 males and 10 females, with a mean age of 29.67 (SD = 8.55), were included in the feasibility study. Table 1 includes the descriptive analysis of the 3 outcome measurements, i.e. IMI, SUS and CEQ collected in the aged participants. Regarding the results on the IMI, all but one subscale scored above 4.20/7.00, which indicates good to very good motivation. The median SUS score is 72.50 (67.50-85.00) which indicates a good usability of the system. The CEQ shows a high score on the credibility subscale (= 20.25), while the scores on the expectancy subscale are considered moderately positive (= 15.90).
Feedback of the users during and after use of the i-ACT system pertained to two main themes, i.e.
perceived experience and opportunities of the i-ACT. The main theme of opportunities was further divided in visual and technical opportunities.
Regarding perceived experience, aged participants stated that they liked "the game".
"The little guy did some weird things that I also had to do. A bit like a mirror, but then with 2 people." (Participant from nursing home facility). As mentioned in the method section, a prototype was used. So the i-ACT could not be used independently, a supervisor was necessary. Aged participants stated that the presence of the supervisors was making them feel more comfortable and better able to use the i-ACT.
"I'm glad you're here. I could never do this alone." After about 10 minutes of trying exercises, this person stated "I'm getting the hang of it … thanks to you and your help (i.e. explanation)". (Participant from day care facility).
"Without X (name of the supervisors), I would never try things like this. I'm glad I did though. Even at my age … you're never too old to learn something new." (Participant from day care facility).
Concerning the visual items, six persons would like to have a more attractive context, such as a kitchen as background, an open eld with clouds and trees, etc. But also a more "game-like", interactive context such as ying birds that persons need to catch, grasping a cup from a cupboard, kicking against a football, etc. This is in correspondence with the answers that concern the technical features, i.e. the feedback "should not be so plain. You only have those balloons you need to touch and they explode. Can't you put some birds there and that I have to catch the birds?" (participant from nursing home). Furthermore, 17 participants suggested to make "the game" -as called by almost all participants -a multiplayer game, "so that we can play against each other".
Also, as a prototype of the i-ACT was used, some technical problems occurred and so the feedback of 6 participants was that the system "should work properly". Two people said "it would be a great thing to get this on my television at home. You know, like those aerobic exercises on television in the old days". Eleven participants clearly stated that they were anxious about using something new, some sort of technology.
"All that technical stuff, it's not my cup of tea. I never used a computer or those cordless phones (i.e. mobile phones). So my rst thought was, this is not something for me, but when the girl explained to me that it was on the television and showed me what I had to do, I was reassured. I tried it, and I was actually happy that I could do it, you know, make those balloons explode and stuff." (Participant from day care facility).
Also, supervisors (i.e. occupational therapists and students) gave their own opinion about the i-ACT. In general the supervisors were positive about using the i-ACT to stimulate PA in aged persons, mostly due to the involvement they saw of the participants. The supervisors observed happiness, competition within the participant to reach the targets, etc.
"It was surprising really, I never saw X (person's name) engaged so much in an activity, unless during singing or watching an old television program. During other activities we have to keep him involved every 5 minutes or so". (Therapist from nursing home facility).
"You see that people get more involved the longer they play with it (i.e. i-ACT). It's like they just forget about their surroundings … it's incredible how focused they are on just a little dot on the screen".
(Therapist from day care facility).
Although the supervisors were overall positive about the i-ACT system, taking into account that a prototype was used, they reported that they think/feel that i-ACT could be better implemented in day care centres and not so much in nursing homes. The main reason the supervisors report is that people who go to day care facilities have, on average, better cognitive and physical functions than people in nursing homes.

Discussion
The aim of this study was to assess to which extent a customised Kinect system is 1) a credible tool to increase PA in aged persons, 2) motivating to perform PA by aged persons, and 3) easy to be used in aged persons.
In general, participants liked using the i-ACT system, as stated by the participants themselves during exercises. The positive perceived experience that the aged persons had during and after use of the i-ACT systems, as supported by the quotes, is also visual in the results of the questionnaires. From the results of the CEQ, it can be concluded that the participants have moderate belief that they will improve in PA by exercising with i-ACT, but also that they highly belief that exercising with i-ACT can support them in performing PA. It is assumed that credibility is more connected with the logical thought processes of patients while expectancy is more related to the affective processes (36). Therefore, from the results of credibility and expectancy towards use of i-ACT, we can assume that aged persons are convinced that i-ACT is a system that can help them to perform PA, but that they still need more convincing that i-ACT can improve their physical functioning and thus help them to age successful. This latter can be done by providing older adults with more information (36) about the i-ACT, why PA is important and increase the length of the use of i-ACT. When providing people with more information, more knowledge about the i-ACT, people will increase their use and thus their experience with i-ACT (39). Furthermore, by providing more information about the i-ACT, aged persons might become more at ease with using i-ACT. As seen in the results of the IMI, the results on the subscale "felt pressure/tension", were the lowest (i.e. 3.40/7.00).
While this is low, we can still consider this a good outcome as this score indicates that the aged persons felt some level of pressure or tension while performing exercises, but the pressure was not so high that it withheld them from performing the exercises. The same range of results were shown in the pilot study of i-ACT when used in neurorehabilitation (27). Participants in both studies declared to feel a sort of pressure to perform good on the exercises, i.e. they wanted to hit the targets as best as possible, without compensational movements (27). Together with the other results on the IMI, it can be suggested that both groups, aged persons and persons with central nervous system diseases, are motivated by the i-ACT system to perform good to very good on the exercises provided. Another possible explanation why aged persons felt some pressure or tension, might be the fact that aged persons have less experience with technology, computers, etc. which can make them anxious, and thus need more information beforehand: I'm not used to working with computers, so I was a bit tensed and anxious to use it beforehand. Luckily the nice girl (i.e. student occupational therapy) comforted me and told me she would stay with me to explain everything.
(Participant from day care facility).
As for the feasibility and usefulness of i-ACT as a tool for successful aging, we can assume that i-ACT is feasible and useful, based on the results from the mixed-method study. The statements of the users where generally positive, such as "I tried it, and I was actually happy that I could do it, you know, make those balloons explode and stuff", "I liked it. Maybe not in the beginning because you don't know what to do. But when you told me to hit those balls, I was on a roll!", "I never saw X (person's name) engaged so much in an activity", "You see that people get more involved the longer they play with it", etc. These statements are supported by the results of the SUS (mdn 72.50 (67.50-85.00)), which suggests that the usability of i-ACT is good. According to Chen et al (2017), who used the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), perceived usefulness is a valid and reliable predictor of technology use, intentions and attitudes towards working with technology (40). Furthermore, these results correspond with the ndings of the review of Webster and Celik (2014). They found that the Kinect is a promising technology to use in aged care (17). The rst reason is because the Kinect provides the most natural form of human-computer interaction. Secondly, the Kinect is the most feasible technology for a widely dispersed system of elderly exergaming. It uses a vision-based data capture and therefore does not require extraneous hardware (17). These reasons are in correspondence with the feedback of aged persons received during the tests.
"Hey, that guy is doing what I'm doing. How's that possible? I'm not connected with the tv or anything". After explaining that there is a camera in front of him, the person stated, "how funny. How amazing is technology nowadays. Almost scary! …. So the camera sees me, but he doesn't really see me because I'm not the person on the screen?" (Participant from day care facility).
The last reason mentioned by Webster et al (2014) is that the Kinect platform is easy to access by developers to create novel and high quality rehabilitation systems and exergames or serious games together with the freedom of controller-free data acquisition (17).
Although the scores were positive on the assessments (i.e. IMI, SUS and CEQ), these scores have to be interpreted with caution as some participants gave socially desirable answers. So the results might be an overestimation of the real thoughts of the participant. Working with persons' perceptions can have this bias, it is human to try to give the socially desired answers instead of being completely honest. And although these socially desired answers might be given by the participants, the therapists and researchers who attended the participant during the exercises, saw involvement of participants, they observed happiness, competition within the participant themselves to reach the targets, etc.
Participants liked using the i-ACT but also suggested some adaptations, such as creating a more attractive context by adding more visualisations of targets or the context of the movement, but still keep it simple. They would have like a more game-like environment such as catching ying birds out of the sky, taking a cup out of the cupboard or even kick against a football. This is in accordance with other systems that work with exergames or serious games in older adults with physical limitations (15, 17-19, 41, 42). The most research in this area is done in persons with Parkinson's disease (19,41,42). In these researches it is suggested that persons with Parkinson's disease are motivated to exercise with virtual reality applications, as well as some positive bene ts like increased gait strategies (19,41). Also, a multiplayer option should be present. The participants wanted to play against other people, sort of like a competition. It has already been proven that a multiplayer feature motivates people more (43). Furthermore, in other research it is also suggested to combine a virtual environment with auditory and visual cues to increase exercise intensity and consequently promote tness in older adults (42). Although these are good suggestions and they will be considered when developing the i-ACT further with the focus towards aged persons, the rst focus of i-ACT is still to work as client-centred as possible, as this will also positively in uence the motivation of users (43). Therefore a good combination of working as clientcentred as possible, but with more game-like features and implementation of auditory cues, should be taken into account during the following steps in the development of i-ACT for use in aged care.
As stated above, i-ACT is developed to be able to provide a client-centred exercise program to users (26). The advantages of a client-centred approach are discussed in several clinical elds, e.g. rehabilitation in spinal cord injury (21,22,28,29,(44)(45)(46). One of the most important outcomes is that persons with disabilities are more motivated to exercise (21,22,28,29,(44)(45)(46). Although a full client-centred approach is, to the authors' knowledge, not yet investigated in aged persons, Vanroy et al (2019) indicated that aged persons can be motivated to exercise when the needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness are satis ed (25). These needs can be addressed by using the client-centred approach. In this study, however, various exercises were implemented considering the possibilities of the participants. So no goals were set up beforehand or even assessed after using i-ACT. In future research, this should preferably be implemented in the process. To discover a person's own goals, one can use many assessments. In another study of i-ACT, the Canadian Occupational Performance Model (COPM) is used (7,24,27,47). This tool is developed to set occupational performance goals, based on a person's perception. It can also be used to measure progress objectively concerning the performance goals de ned by the person. Even in aged persons it is important to de ne certain goals (24,48), especially to stimulate physical activity and focus on regaining and/or maintaining engagement in ADLs that the person nds meaningful and purposeful, even at an older age (3,7,49).
After the full trial, the supervisors (i.e. occupational therapists and students) reported that they think/feel that i-ACT could be better implemented in day care centres and not so much in nursing homes. The main reason is that people who go to day care facilities have better cognitive and physical functions than people in nursing homes. Furthermore, the sooner people maintain or initiate moderate to vigorous PA, the more likely they will age successfully, and the better quality of life these people will have when aging (1,3,5,6,8,10,13). Therefore, there should not only be general guidelines for the general population as generated by the WHO, but also general guidelines for nursing homes and day care facilities regarding the minimum amount of PA training per day or week. Although the bene ts of PA in aged persons have already been well documented (3,13), using technology while exercising has the bene ts of gathering quantitative data related to physical progress, amount of PA, etc. This is also implemented in i-ACT as not only the time of the execution is stored, but also the amount of targets reached, and the amount of compensational movements (26). Although the latter might not be the primary goal in aged care, the other features are also important for future purposes when the system might be used at home in aged persons, i.e. caregivers, doctors, or other supervisors can see whether, how much and how well the aged person is performing PA. Furthermore, a Kinect-based system has the advantages of being low-cost, easy to use and controller-free exercises (17,26,39,43). These advantages are also bene cial when i-ACT is introduced as a PA tool in the home environment of aged persons. The physical risks are limited as users are not connected to wires or have to handle a controller. Also, i-ACT is easy to use by the person who performs the exercises, i.e. they have to follow the example avatar in his movements and have to copy them (26).
Methodological considerations also have to be made. This is a feasibility study so only descriptive statistics are performed. Therefore no conclusions can be made to the general aged population. Findings have to be handled with the upmost care and seen in the light of a feasibility study as a rst step to perform a higher level of clinical study.
Limitations of this study is also the sample size and the distribution of the gender. The study sample might be enough for a feasibility study, however, to make vast conclusions towards the general population, a larger sample is necessary and more characteristics of the participants should be gathered, such as education level, level of motor functioning, level of cognitive functioning, experience with technology, etc. Fanning et al. (2016) suggested that people who have at least a college education level, are more likely to provide information and participate in research (5). Furthermore, the majority of the sample was female and all of them were Caucasian. Although women outnumber men in aged population, they are also more likely to engage in health-related endeavours (5). Another limitation is that the i-ACT was mostly used in a one-on-one situation and in a separate (part of the) room. Therefore, we cannot formulate the in uence of social interaction. In other settings, where the i-ACT is more integrated in the rehabilitation environment, people are getting interested in the i-ACT by seeing it used by peers and interact with the participants and/or supervisors.
The aim of this study was to assess to which extent the i-ACT could provide a positive contribution towards PA in elderly. The next step would be to adapt the i-ACT towards the wishes and needs of aged persons. For example, a more attractive context or background, implementing some game features so it will become a exergame (e.g. birds as targets), and looking into the possibility of a multiplayer. Also it would be important to evaluate the use of a client-centred approach in aged persons in different settings, i.e. home, day care facility, and nursing home facility. The suggested method for this would be to use a user-centred approach in which the aged persons are involved, but also their caretakers and care professionals. Regarding the PA protocol, there is no evidence of the most optimal amount of exercises, time and/or intensity. But the guidelines of the WHO are clear and feasible in both care facilities and home environment (9). The guidelines suggest 1) at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic PA or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic PA throughout the week, 2) aerobic activity in bouts of at least 10 minutes, and 3) muscle-strengthening activities involving all the major muscle groups at least two days a week (9). So considering these guidelines, a PA protocol should combine aerobic exercises with muscle-strengthening activities, preferably for at least 30 minutes per day during at least ve days per week, preferably in the morning (25). The PA program should take into account the general training parameters such as gradual increase in duration, frequency and intensity over time. Also, the program should continue inde nitely, as aged persons do not continue their PA program after supervision ends (11,19). The i-ACT system could be a relatively easy solution to stimulate and maintain PA in aged persons in different settings (i.e. home, day care and nursing homes). The PA exercises should be individually set according to the person's needs and wishes, and by taking into account their preferred occupation/activity in daily life. Regarding outcomes, there should be assessments related to the physical abilities of persons and general health status, and an assessment concerning quality of life and/or life satisfaction.

Conclusions
The i-ACT is considered to be useful and motivational towards aged persons to perform PA, and therefore may contribute to successful aging. Furthermore, as i-ACT is considered a low cost, easy to use and controller/wire-free system, it can be a suitable tool in the home environment of aged persons to initiate or maintain PA so they can age in place. Further development and future research is necessary to adapt the i-ACT system towards the wishes and needs of the aged population at home and in care facilities by applying a user-centred design. Also, future research should include the effect of using a client-centred task-oriented approach in combination with technology-supported systems to engage aged persons to perform PA and thus regain and/or maintain engagement in ADLs that they nd meaningful and purposeful at an older age. Client interface during performance of the exercise "lifting knee".

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